Just Breathe Mom » family

Here We Go Again

Meredith — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:41:04 +0000

The Universe has spoken. Apparently it was tired of my fertility flip-flopping and made the decision for me. Yes, I am pregnant with baby #3. And it just so happens that I got rid of most of my baby stuff just last month. Fortunately, I have plenty of fertile friends and family members who are willing to share. However, since most of them had baby girls earlier this year, I suppose I better start thinking pink.

And why not think pink anyway? I’ve been floating in a sea of blue for over 6 years now. I need a proper caretaker for my sons’ neglected Snow White and Cinderella dolls. Although, I’d be thrilled if she preferred dinosaurs to the dolls. Because dinosaurs are just so cool. And I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of them.

A friend of mine has a theory about her circle of friends. She is convinced that the third child of her friend’s children will be girls. And why shouldn’t she be convinced� Every single one of her friends who have children, had 2 boys first. The only friends that have girls are the friends who had a third child. She is included in this because she just had her third child a few months ago. Oh yeah, it was a girl. Nobody has ventured into the scary 4 kids territory yet, so we don’t know what the future holds for them. But if her theory holds true, I’ll be looking at a little princess (or tomboy) in about 8 months. That baby is coming home from the hospital in a tutu dammit! I may be just the one though to knock her little theory out into orbit. All it takes is that XY chromosome.

Honestly though, all the talk about gender is fun, but it really doesn’t matter to me. I can accept and be happy as the wife and mother from the TV show Home Improvement. (Yes, my husband is a version of Tim the Toolman Taylor).

I need to worry about our sleep situation more than the gender of our unborn baby. Our 6-year-old and our almost 4-year-old, still bed hop at night. Most nights we are squeezed into our queen size like a can of sardines. Only some of our sardines are inverted and perpendicular. To steal a line (and replace one word) from one of my favorite movies, Jaws, “We’re gonna need a bigger bed!”

And that’s not all…

I Have A Dream…

Joey — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:16:07 +0000

That more than twenty people will comment on this and all my blogs.

That I have a personal landscaper to take away all of my wrong decisions and the bug bites I obtain when making them.

That I am Samantha on Bewitched and can wiggle my nose and turn things around instantaneously.

That flies talk to each other and know they face certain death when coming into my house, so they don’t dare try. (Although, I am able to practice my ninja moves on the unsuspecting disease carrying buggers.)

That one morning I will walk downstairs and the dishes are clean, toys put away, and the floors cleaned.

That all of my photos stored on the computer will magically make it to print and a photo album before my kids go away to college.

That my baby will sleep through the night, every night.

That I have all of the time I need to work on my current passion, JustBreatheMom.com.

That the expression “shear exhaustion” doesn’t apply to me.

That I have quality time for myself.

That no person, place or thing can irritate or annoy me today or any other day.

That every mom & child knew that his or her dreams were only a thought away.

The Dirty Truth

Joey — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:22:33 +0000

The dirty truth is that my life is filled with poop. Dog poop, cat poop, boy poop, and baby girl poop. It’s an awful word; one that I never thought would be a main part of my vocab, let alone clean up 50 times a day. Nevertheless, somehow it has entrenched my life. So much that now friends and family feel free to talk to me about their p**p experiences. I will protect the above by giving them anonymity. They tell me I’m the only one they’ve spoken to about their own dirty truth. Therefore, I seal my lips on their incidences.

My burning question is, Why me? Why am I inundated with everyone else’s dirty truth? Is it because between three dogs, three cats, and three kids that I clean-up so much of it I’m an expert? Is it because I give so much attention to it each day that I’m bringing more of it into my life via the Law of Attraction? Why has my life all of a sudden become about that dirty four-lettered word? Please tell me that I’m not the only one that scoops the litter, cleans the backyard, changes a pull-up, a diaper, and wipes a pint-sized butt (not mine, at least not since I’ve had 3 kids in 4 years) all before 10 am.

I can’t seem to get away from it. My boys don’t make it any easier with their obsession with the stuff. Oftentimes when I clean the backyard, they are there pointing out the different piles. It’s a competition on who can find the most. They act as if they scored the winning point with each find. One day, my oldest did show a little sportsmanship when he said, “I hope Hayden finds some.” Ahhh, brotherly love. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there, my almost 3-year-old has to draw dog p**p on all of his pictures that include a house. He wants you to draw the house and he likes to draw circular objects falling from the sky that represent, well you know. Yeah, it’s going to be fun explaining that in preschool.

Oh well, if you need someone to lay your p**p experiences on, I’m here. There’s nothing I haven’t heard or seen. (Read It Was A Poop-tastrope.) After all, when you have three babies, your modesty has been thrown out the window. More people have seen me naked than when I was a single girl in my twenties. Go ahead and write on my tombstone…

Beloved wife, mother, daughter, and friend…
She really gave a crap.

The Upside of Mishap

Meredith — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:50:02 +0000

Late last week I decided to take my sons swimming at my sister’s house. But before we could leave, my boys wanted to swing for a few minutes on our backyard swing set. Since they are getting older and bolder, they wanted me to push them a little higher than usual. Against my better judgment, I did. While my 6-year-old was at the highest point in the air during his swing, the rope attaching the swing to the swing set gave way and my son fell flat on his back.

I quickly scooped him up and took him inside to assess the damage. Thankfully, he seemed more shocked than physically hurt. He had a little red mark on his lower back and a couple of broken fingernails. (Which just proves that I don’t trim them often enough.) Anyway, I fretted over him for a few minutes, kissed his boo boos, and then moved on with the day.

But my clever son, clearly enjoying all of the attention and fuss I was making over him, wanted his falling out of the swing accident to be the theme of the day. He was going to let anyone and everyone know about it. And he was going to milk it for everything it was worth.

First, he needed a cookie because he fell out of the swing and hurt himself “so so so very very very badly.” His words, not mine. Cookies have magic healing powers when you’ve taken a tumble apparently. But apparently they aren’t the only thing. Toys seem to help too, according to my 6-year-old. I nixed the new toy idea quickly. There would be little boys falling out of our swing set daily if a new toy was the end result. So I said yes to the cookie and no to the toy.

Meanwhile, when we pulled into my sister’s driveway, my son reminded me to tell my sister and her family about his very scary incident. But I didn’t have to - he wasted no time the minute we walked into her front door. My little sympathy seeker sure knew how to work a room, let me tell ya. And he received all of the ooohs and ahhhs and worried expressions he was looking for. After his few minutes of uninterrupted attention, he was ready to move on for awhile. That is until his daddy got home and the whole process started over. I can’t say I really blame him for his attention seeking behavior because there will come a day when mom is the only one who will still notice his boo boos.

Miniature Masseurs

Meredith — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:55:37 +0000

I come from a back-rub loving family. When I was young I remember my mom constantly hounding me or one of my four other siblings to rub her back. Sometimes we’d happily oblige. Other times we’d pretend we didn’t hear her and hope she’d move on to someone else. And even other times, we’d work out a back-rub exchange with her.

Well I’m here to tell you the apple did not fall far from the tree with me. I have a severe back-rub addiction, and I blame only my mother for it. Here I am in my mid-thirties doing exactly as my mother did, begging my children for back-rubs. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I don’t stop the begging at my children. I’ll stop in front of just about anyone and wiggle my shoulders in hopes that they’ll start massaging my shoulders and back. Okay, so I don’t ask strangers, but siblings, coworkers and acquaintances are not off the hook.

Sometimes my children do oblige and give me a back-rub. Other times they completely ignore me. If I’m being honest though, their back-rubbing skills leave much to be desired. They have about a 30 second to 1 minute attention span on the back-rubbing. I know, I know, they are only 3 and 6. I can’t really blame them if they’d rather play with action figures than rub my back. So sometimes I have to get clever. I’ll lie down on my stomach and put a couple of matchbox cars next to me, and invite them to race their cars on my back. Voila! Instant back massage. Those little wheels can hit just the right spots at times. The matchbox races usually give me about 5 minutes of back activity. And I’ll happily take it!

Other times I’ll just lie down on my stomach and see what happens. I’ve learned in my 6 years as a parent that you WILL get climbed on, walked on and jumped on if you are on your stomach. Considering the lengths I’ll go to get a little pressure applied to my back, that’s not a bad thing.

A Little Bit of Peace

Joey — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:11:36 +0000

One of the things that I am seeking this year in my life is… Peace. I’m not talking about peace on earth, peace to my fellow man, or peace – love – & – happiness. Although, those are certainly worthwhile things to strive for, I’m specifically talking about a little bit of peace in my own life. The kind of peace where I can think, breathe, and relax in complete silence.

So, how does a mother of a preschooler, toddler, and newborn accomplish this? Good question. I’ve been trying to figure that out myself as my two boys have been auditioning for the TV show “Super Nanny” over the last two weeks. (No doubt, a delayed reaction brought on by the birth of their 6-week-old baby sister.) However, last Friday I did stumble upon my moment of peace.

Miraculously, all three of my kids were asleep at the same time. And it wasn’t during the middle of the night. At precisely 3:23 pm, I found a little bit of peace. I sat there smiling and wondering what I should do with my newfound silence. After about a minute, I decided that I would wash the dishes, relax with my muffin, and listen to Oprah & Friends on XM Radio. Unfortunately, baby girl had other plans and woke up 15 minutes later. Therefore, I didn’t get to finish the dishes, eat my muffin, and only heard bits and pieces of the words of wisdom on the radio I desperately needed.

In retrospect, I should have left the dishes and been present in my moment of silence. Lesson learned. I guess that’s all part of evolving as a mother. Utilize a quiet moment in time for yourself when it comes your way.

Welcome Me To The 21st Century

Meredith — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:19:20 +0000

I can’t believe it. I have an iPod. Me, with an iPod. I may be late to the party, but I am sure happy to have been invited. Ever since I got a pair of parachute pants in junior high on the tail end of them going out of style, I’ve been late with the trends. This one has been well worth the wait. You see my ultra-generous brother gave me one as a gift for my birthday. Whenever he would come to visit, I would disappear with his and listen to some of the old music we grew up listening to. So he bought it, loaded it up with the same music that is on his, threw in a couple of iPod extras and brought me into the 21^st century. It did not take me long to fall in love with this little gadget.

My boys love it too. Since my brother is a move soundtrack fan, he programmed quite a few on my iPod. Including the music to Spiderman, Superman and Batman. Well what more could two little boys want? There is plenty of Disney music on there as well. So every night at bedtime, I put the iPod in their room, and start with the Disney tunes. If they are still awake when the princesses are done singing, we graduate to the superhero tunes.They also enjoy the music to Jaws. Although they have never seen the movie, they know that that famous John Williams piece is all about a shark. And that’s good enough for them. My husband is enjoying his iPod moments as well. Since he is a huge James Bond fan, he can’t get enough of the James Bond movie themes that my brother programmed. We are also set whenever we need an eighties music fix. It’s not like I can hear The Safety Dance everyday. Oh wait, I actually can now! Ahhh…the beauty of an iPod. Now if I could just get some cable, I’d really feel like one of those Disney song titles, “Part of Your World!”

Blowin in the Wind

Meredith — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:37:57 +0000

Because we have never taken a real family photo since the birth of our two children, my husband and I thought it would be fun to take a beach family photo while we were on vacation visiting my brother who lives on the East Coast. It was my husband and brother’s idea for all of us to wear matching white shirts and jeans for the photo. Thinking it might be a corny, gag inducing idea, I resisted. But I was overruled by the photographer (my brother) and my husband. I will say though that the more I thought about it, the more it appealed to me. I agreed that maybe white shirts with jeans would look pretty with an ocean backdrop.

Sadly, the weather forecast only gave us a one day possibility to achieve our goal. That day was Thursday. With 56 degrees, sunny skies and some wind as the prediction, we thought we were fairly safe. So we headed off to Newport Beach Rhode Island in search of a nice enough beach location. We found our location, and hopped out of the van to get into position.

Oh my goodness, it was freezing by the water! And the wind was absolutely insane! Our teeth were chattering we were so cold. With the wind howling like it was, my poor hair suffered tremendously. Not as much as my poor husband, who became the victim of my Medusa mane. Honestly, my hair was nothing short of ridiculous! Our boys were little troopers who managed to smile through their discomfort.

Although we survived the ordeal, our photos left much to be desired. Only one single photo of the GOBS that were snapped turned out halfway decent. And I mean it when I say only halfway. So here is a sampling. Go right ahead…laugh all you want! I sure did.

Giving Thanks

Joey — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:07:21 +0000

It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with my third child, but it wasn’t yesterday. In fact, it has been a little over three weeks ago that I gave birth to Lilah Frances. My c-section recovery is going slower than I would like, but the boys, baby girl, and I are finally starting to find our groove. Giving thanks is long overdue. So, here it goes…

I was and still am lucky enough to have several friends and family members help me out during the last part of my pregnancy and after the birth. I carried Lilah very low and was physically unable to do much towards the end, including chase around my two-year-old. My mom was great about driving me around and helping me with the house and my mini zoo of four cats and three dogs. A fellow preschool mom has gone above and beyond in helping me by driving my older son to and from preschool for over a month now. Not to mention staying in my home with my two sons, so my husband could be in the hospital with me. Another friend stayed the second night in the hospital with me and helped me care for my daughter. She graciously catered to us, because I could barely get out of bed. My mother-in-law put herself in the line of fire between my two dueling boys the week after I got out of the hospital. I couldn’t have taken care of them without her. I also do not want to forget my great babysitter who was on call whenever I needed her.

I have the greatest OB who doesn’t miss a beat. She has seen me safely through three deliveries and I couldn’t have asked for a better doctor. I had a pretty good round of nurses this time at the hospital. There were two in particular who made things so much easier for me. The first nurse that I was lucky enough to have for two days was the nicest and most attentive nurse that I’ve ever had. She was the first nurse that I ever told how good they were. The end of my four-day stay gave me another personable nurse that was on top of her game.

I cannot forget my husband for giving me best gift of all, three beautiful children.

I know that all of these people would just say that they were doing their job or it was no big deal to help. However, I think it is a huge deal and I wish that I could find the right words to express my gratitude. Thank you doesn’t seem strong enough. Then again, maybe thank you are the two strongest words in our language. We just don’t say them enough.

Road Trip Pros

Meredith — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:11:46 +0000

We just returned from a week long vacation that began with a 15 hour road trip. I can’t tell you how nervous I was to be taking a 6 & 3-year-old on that long of a drive. Dread doesn’t even come close to describing the feeling I had before this trip. It didn’t help that 4 hours before we were supposed to leave my youngest developed a slight fever and tummy ache. Now that is one quick way to turn dread into panic. Thank goodness the little guy was feeling better because we decided to just go for it.

We had toys, music and a portable DVD player to keep our boys occupied until they fell into slumber. (We left in the evening and were hoping to drive a good part into the night.) Well let me tell you something…these little boys were absolute champs! My husband and I were in complete shock over their terrific behavior. It’s not that they are typically horrible bratty hellions, but they have their moments. And we thought there would be nothing like a long drive to bring out those moments.

We did stop at a hotel for the rest of the night, which helped break the drive in half. We made it to our destination with barely a hitch. So when it was time to head home the following Saturday morning, that dread started to creep up again because there would be no long break in driving this time. We were heading home early and not stopping until we got there. We were only going to make necessary pit stops.

Again we were floored by their backseat harmony. We had no idea we had such pros on the road. I’m sure this story would have been much more entertaining had they been holy terrors. But I’m really okay with a dull story and a happy ending to our vacation.

You can find all kinds of resources, tips, and activities to keep your kids happy on JustBreatheMom.com’s family travel page.